(Gr. form of Egyptian "Mn-nfr", "good stay") (name of the pyramids of Pepi II).
Important city of Egypt. According to Herodotus, its founder was the first historical king of Egypt, Menes, who built it on land taken from the Nile due to drying out.
Memphis rose above the plain, on the west bank of the Nile, about 16 km before the delta.
It was the capital of Lower Egypt under the III, IV, V, VII and VIII dynasties, according to Maneto (Egyptian priest and historian of the 3rd century BC).
The god Ptah was worshiped there. When the capital passed to Thebes, Memphis continued to be a flourishing city; It began to decline after the founding of Alexandria. The Hebrews knew her under the names Noph (Is. 19:13) and Mof (Hos. 9:6, Hebrew text).
After the fall of Jerusalem and the murder of Gedaliah, the Jews fled to Egypt; some of them settled in Mof (Memphis, Jer. 44:1). Jeremiah and Ezekiel announced judgments on her (Jer. 46:19; cf. 2:16; 46:14; Ez. 30:13, 16; cf. Is. 19:13; Hos. 9:6).
A considerable part of Memphis was still standing in the Middle Ages, but materials were constantly being taken from there for the construction of Cairo.
On the site of Memphis there are only two Arab villages, but its twenty pyramids (the ancient necropolis) and the famous sphinx bear eloquent testimony to its past greatness.
Meaning of MEMPHIS
Important city of Egypt. According to Herodotus, its founder was the first historical king of Egypt, Menes, who built it on land taken from the Nile due to drying out.
Memphis rose above the plain, on the west bank of the Nile, about 16 km before the delta.
